Travel northwest to the country's capital, Kinshasa, and you can dine alongside well-coiffed European madams and local politicians with their mistresses, sipping imported drinks on the terrace under a beautiful banyan tree at Chateau Margau. Dinner and drinks at the old colonial mansion can easily cost $100 _ the average annual income for a Congolese, lower than that at the time of independence from Belgium in 1960. Electricity and running water are spotty in the capital of 8 million people, most of whom live in tin-roof shacks enveloped by exhaust fumes, open sewage and heaps of garbage. Hotels, restaurants and the upper class often must light their premises with oil-fueled generators.

KAMPONDE, Congo — Louis Anselme Kasamba dreams of becoming doctor, yet is dirt poor by conventional Western standards. So like many Congolese, who are shrewd in their determination to scratch out a living, Kasamba devised a plan of action.

The 18-year-old saved, then rode his bike down a dirt road some 100 miles to the south, to a town where he purchased a mobile phone for $63. Click to learn more...

Back in this central Congo village with no telephones, running water or electricity, Kasamba now sells phone calls for about 50 cents a minute. He charges the phone battery when the parish priest jacks up his oil-fueled generator. Today, his college fund stands at about $100.

Villagers come and shout into the phone, tied to a bamboo pole in the one spot that sometimes captures a signal. When the connection is down, they sit under a mango tree and wait.

They sometimes call to wish someone happy birthday or congratulations another on a marriage, but mostly they quickly plead with family for money or food, keeping their calls under a minute.

"I need to hustle and find ways to make money if I want to be a doctor," says Kasamba, who earns only $20 a month as dormitory monitor of the local boarding school. He's typically only paid every few months, and never the full amount.

Still, public university in the provincial capital 100 miles north is only $200 a year. Kasamba may one day fulfill his dream, like thousands of Congolese who are turning to cellular telephones to make some money. The demand for cellular telephones in the Congo _ which has fewer than 25,000 conventional land lines _ is now among the highest in Africa.

Kasamba is a rare example of what would be considered a member of the middle class in this Equatorial African nation where the very rich keep getting richer and the poor grow ever more despondent.

Travel northwest to the country's capital, Kinshasa, and you can dine alongside well-coiffed European madams and local politicians with their mistresses, sipping imported drinks on the terrace under a beautiful banyan tree at Chateau Margau.

Dinner and drinks at the old colonial mansion can easily cost $100 _ the average annual income for a Congolese, lower than that at the time of independence from Belgium in 1960.

Electricity and running water are spotty in the capital of 8 million people, most of whom live in tin-roof shacks enveloped by exhaust fumes, open sewage and heaps of garbage. Hotels, restaurants and the upper class often must light their premises with oil-fueled generators.

Yet there are markers of progress. The country has its first 24-hour ATM machine, where people drive up in their imported BMWs and Mercedes, furtively withdrawing wads of 100 dollar bills. They can withdraw up to $1,000 _ with a $2 fee and 3 percent interest on top of the amount of the withdrawal _ with a VISA card.

ProCredit Bank, which operates the cash machine, isn't just for the well-heeled.

The micro-credit establishment that opened last year offers small loans and savings accounts to individuals who cannot afford the big banks. It's the first in Congo to offer VISA cards for a $50 annual fee and no big deposit down.

"There are some people who just don't believe that there is such a thing in Congo," says Tamaris Ngandu Mwabala, the 32-year-old branch manager of ProCredit Bank. "I believe some people want the VISA cards because it just makes them proud; they just want to show off."

Mwabala says the bank _ whose backers include the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank _ hopes to branch out to other Congolese cities as the country stabilizes and expands its devastated road grid, of which only some 300 to 400 miles are paved. Since opening last year, ProCredit Bank has more than 20,000 customers, all members of the country's middle-class minority trying to pull themselves up.

Yet most Congolese are villagers who farm small plots of manioc, corn and beans and typically grow only enough to feed their families.

Congo is dripping in diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin and coltan _ the essential ingredient of the cell phones that now rule communications in the country. It is also rich in coffee, palm oil and the rubber that colonial ruler King Leopold II of Belgium once exploited so ruthlessly on his personal plantations.

But in virtually every corner of the Congo, nearly a decade of turmoil has run the common man into the ground. At least 4 million people died during six years of armed rebellion, leading to hunger and disease, and making it the deadliest conflict since World War II.

"The contradiction is that it's one of the richest countries on the planet," notes Mario Zamorano, a spokesman for the largest and most expensive U.N. mission ever assembled, one that is desperately trying to maintain peace during the first democratic vote for a leader in 46 years.

"All the elements are there: copper, gold and diamonds," Zamorano says. "They are so rich and they are so poor."

Though civil war officially ended in 2002, some 1,200 people still die each day due to the remnants of that violence, half of them children, one in five of whom will die by age 5.

One of those who is soon likely to die is Kabuanga Marie Mutanga, who lies emaciated on a rattan mat in a dark mud hut in Kamponde, the village where Kasamba sells his cellular calls.

Her mother says she has tuberculosis or parasites, but the Catholic nun who runs the village clinic says she's beyond help, dying of the "four letter word," or AIDS. Her husband has long gone, her three children now in the care of their grandmother, once the village prostitute.

"We're on our own," says the mother, Kamilongo Kamukenji, propping up her daughter's bald head to better see a foreign visitor. "The village has done nothing for us. People are just more concerned about struggling for a living."

When this story was posted in October 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Harris Wofford to speak at "PC History" series Senator Harris Wofford will be the speaker at the 4th Annual "Peace Corps History" series on November 16 sponsored by the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Maryland Returned Volunteers. Previous speakers in the series have included Jack Vaughn (Second Director of the Peace Corps), Scott Stossel (Biographer of Sargent Shriver), and C. Payne Lucas (President Emeritus of Africare). Details on the time and location of the event are available here.

Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace CorpsSenator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments.

He served with honorOne year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor.

Chris Shays Shifts to Favor an Iraq TimetableIn a policy shift, RPCV Congressman Chris Shays, long a staunch advocate of the Bush administration's position in Iraq, is now proposing a timetable for a withdrawal of American troops. How Mr. Shays came to this change of heart is, he says, a matter of a newfound substantive belief that Iraqis need to be prodded into taking greater control of their own destiny under the country’s newly formed government. As Chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, he plans to draft a timetable for a phased withdrawal and then push for its adoption. A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War who said that if drafted he would not serve, Chris Shays has made 14 trips to Iraq and was the first Congressman to enter the country after the war - against the wishes of the Department of Defense.

Peace Corps' Screening and Medical ClearanceThe purpose of Peace Corps' screening and medical clearance process is to ensure safe accommodation for applicants and minimize undue risk exposure for volunteers to allow PCVS to complete their service without compromising their entry health status. To further these goals, PCOL has obtained a copy of the Peace Corps Screening Guidelines Manual through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and has posted it in the "Peace Corps Library." Applicants and Medical Professionals (especially those who have already served as volunteers) are urged to review the guidelines and leave their comments and suggestions. Then read the story of one RPCV's journey through medical screening and his suggestions for changes to the process.

The Peace Corps is "fashionable" againThe LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace.

PCOL readership increases 100%Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come.

History of the Peace CorpsPCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help.

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Story Source: Houston Chronicle

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Congo Kinshasa; Return to our Country of Service - Congo Kinshasa

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